Thursday 27 August 2009 19.10 EDT
First published on Thursday 27 August 2009 19.10 EDT

Australia's acting captain, Michael Clarke, has brushed off suggestions that he may be about to enter into a full-time job-share with Ricky Ponting. Clarke is captain in the short term, with Ponting resting at home, and as the heir-apparent is likely to be in the long term, too. But between now and then, he insists, the job of leading the side belongs to one man.

"We have only one captain, Ricky is my captain," he said. "He's the only captain I've had in my career and I think he is a fantastic leader of men. My goal is just to get a few wins under our belt before he comes back." Ponting had said he would be receptive to the idea of giving up the one-day captaincy to Clarke to extend his own Test career. "If that's what I, or others, decide is the right way to go," Ponting said, "there's absolutely no reason why that couldn't happen." He began his own tenure in 2002 by sharing the captaincy with Steve Waugh, a situation his predecessor was unhappy about at the time. Ponting and Clarke seem determined to approach the seemingly inevitable transition with more grace.

Clarke, speaking ahead of tomorrow'sone-day match against Scotland, was quick to defend his captain from criticisms levelled at him. "I think it's very unfair for one guy to be criticised," he said. "Yes, he's our captain, he's our leader, but the reality is the whole team lost that series. Every player in the squad has to take responsibility. It's not one guy's fault."

With the Test-only players having flown home on Monday, there has been no time for Australia to rake over the lost Ashes. Individually, though, Clarke said, post-mortems were "happening every day. That's how we work in this Australian team. Our aim is to win every match in every form of the game. We didn't get the result we'd like and we'll be thinking about that until we do get it. In 15 months we get the opportunity to do that in Test cricket.

"I've spent time looking at, and thinking about, what I could have done to help the team be more successful. Every player would have done that." In his case, the answer would seem to be "not much", given that he was the team's leading run-scorer.

"No doubt the Ashes loss will stay in the guys' minds for a long time, but the main point is we have two Twenty20s, seven one-dayers against England and this one here. This is going to be really important to our preparation going forward to the Champions Trophy and on into the World Cup."

The squad's morale, Clark continued, has been boosted by the arrival of the one-day players, who have helped shift the focus on to the challenges ahead. All Clarke's canny diplomacy cannot mask the fact that he is the coming man. Today's fixture against Scotland will be the 12th time Clarke has captained his country – he won eight of the previous 11 matches, increasing his batting average as captain.

Outside that, though, Australia's one-day form has been poor. Clarke led the side to a 3-2 series win against Pakistan before they were knocked out in the opening round of the World Twenty20, but before that there was a tied series against New Zealand and losses home and away to South Africa.

They are unlikely to be excessively tested by a Scottish team who have won only three of their past 23 matches. Scotland are about to enter a five-month break from playing and if their captain, Gavin Hamilton, has his way, the structure of the national game will be completely re-evaluated in that time.